


The World Ends With Us

by noumenon



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-23
Updated: 2013-02-23
Packaged: 2017-12-03 09:01:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/696568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noumenon/pseuds/noumenon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by the game The World Ends With You.<br/>Karkat is stuck in the Houston Reaper's Game without his voice and with one Dave Strider as his partner. Besides the Reaper's Game, which gets explained here, there's no references to the original game so you don't need to have played it to understand anything.<br/>(I suck at summaries, so sorry for that, and I've never been to Houston so I had to rely on maps, so I'm sorry if I get things wrong)</p><p>/ABANDONED/</p>
            </blockquote>





	The World Ends With Us

No sound came out as Karkat tried his hardest to shout, to scream, to make any noise at all. He didn’t know what to do. Around him were these things, honestly he would have said they looked like frogs but they had legs that looked more like tattoos or graffiti on nothing and they were attacking him from every angle and there was nothing about this situation that was normal or made any kind of sense. All he could think to do was run. A curb grabbed his foot and caused Karkat to stumble and fall. His fingers scraped the ground and he tried to get himself up so he could keep running and he could feel his fingertips breaking open and his nails cracking but he couldn’t stop. He couldn’t even ask for help, and not just because he was failing to be able to speak but because no one was even noticing him. That in of itself was insane. Who wouldn’t notice a kid running for his life from a pack of freaky frogs? He tried desperately to get the attention of one of the bystanders but clearly something seriously fucked up was going on and it was almost as if they couldn’t even see him. If only he could get away from those frogs he’d be able to dig out his phone from his backpack and try to contact someone for help. Though with the way things were going, he wasn’t sure that would even work.

It was funny, really, because Karkat had always wished people would just ignore him and let him be. Now he would give anything for that not to be the case. In the back of Karkat’s mind all he could hope was that this was nothing more than an extremely vivid nightmare.

He kept running; that’s all he could do. Eventually he stopped an alley. A few moments passed and he didn’t hear the patter of those little feet on the pavement so he assumed he had lost them, at least for the time being. Finally Karkat had a chance to relax. He sighed loudly. What the hell is going on? Karkat wanted to scream. He tried to think back to before the frogs, in case his last memory would hold some secret to unravel this mystery. The last thing that happened was ... his thought trailed off. The last thing Karkat remembered was the flash of the sun shining off of a car hood right before it slammed right into him. He all but forgot that in the hype of – of – whatever this was. Quickly he checked himself over, but he couldn’t find any sign of the accident that by all logic should have killed him.

He let out a sigh. This whole situation was crazy. There was no way he wasn’t imaging all this but…

There was an urban legend he’d heard of from city kids who moved down to the suburbs. Didn’t it go something like this? It was something about a game for dead kids; Karkat had never paid much attention to the stories. He was never the type to enjoy those stupid kiddie scary stories. They were no better than chain mail as far as he was concerned.

Now? Well now he kind of wished he had listened to them a bit better.

All he could really remember was that there was an urban legend about this thing called the Reaper’s Game. Of course everyone with a fully functioning brain knew it was complete bullshit but it fit, didn’t it? Teens who died, and it was always teenagers, who died in accidents could come back to life from playing this game.

No, of course not. According to that stupid tale he would be getting a text from some assholes who somehow knew his phone number and he’d have a timer. Unless this game was hosted by telephone salesmen why would they know his number? And timers don’t just appear out of thin air. The tale didn’t add up. And that’s besides the fact that dead kids couldn’t play games.

Obviously Karkat was hit by a car and was lying unconscious in a hotel bed and this was all some weird nightmare.

Yeah, yeah that has to be it. Now all Karkat had to do was find a way to wake up.

Before he had a chance to do anything he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

This nightmare was only getting worse by the second.

Hesitantly he slid the phone out of his pocket and opened the text.

* * *

Dave’s sword seemed to go straight through the frogs’ bodies. He kept slicing and slicing but all it was doing was draining his energy. Really he needed to give up, and he knew it. This was the Reaper’s Game and he didn’t have a partner so of course he couldn’t fight the Noise. He’d heard plenty about this game online and from other teens around Houston. A game for dead people? Yeah of course that caught his interest. Dave never thought for one second he’d ever be playing it, though.

His phone was vibrating to remind him of his unread text, but he ignored it. He knew what it was, and he wanted to avoid opening it until after he partnered up with someone, or at least until he was somewhere safe.

“Sorry froggies but I can’t stay much longer, mom wants me home in time for dinner.” Dave grumbled as he turned tail and ran. Fighting was useless without a partner. If he wanted to survive, he would need to find someone, anyone.

After he was sufficiently far away from the Noise he grudgingly pulled out his phone and read the text. Hopefully there would be more Players hanging around and near wherever it was they were supposed to be going.

 

> Get your ass over to the best park in town.  
>  You got an hour.  
>  Mess this up and you’ll be erased.  
>  -The Reapers

As soon as he finished reading the text there was a searing pain in his hand, and when he looked down on it he could see a timer ticking down. Where was he supposed to go? He thought for a moment; the only place in Houston ‘the best park in town’ would have to be Discovery Green. He had to get to Discovery Green in an hour. One hour. One hour to get himself a partner and save his skin. How hard could it possibly be?

* * *

Karkat was running straight towards Discovery Green, coming to a forced stop when he ran into something and fell backwards against the pavement. _Shit!_ He wanted to scream and release his frustration but of course he couldn’t. Not being able to talk was absolute torture.

After the white faded from the edge of his vision and he was able to focus again, he got back up on his feet and reached forward, hissing when pain pierced his body. Once he came into contact with it, lights danced across a holographic wall. Well this is just fucking great! He thought bitterly. After all, the text told him to come here! What’s the point of that if he couldn’t even get inside?

He lifted his fist in the air, only barely fighting back the urge to punch the wall. That would only end in more pain for him while the wall stood there like a smug piece of shit.

People hustling through the city were having no problem going pass through the wall, and Karkat swore angrily at it in his head and he pressed a hand to the phosphorescent surface and applied some pressure before yanking back his hand as the feeling of being electrocuted shot through his flesh. It was definitely there all right, but for some reason it was only there for him.

This was going to kill him, he just knew it. Out of the corner of his eye he could see those stupid frogs popping up again and he vaguely wondered what would happen if he died in this dream. He sat down, tossing his backpack a few feet to the side just about ready to give up and take whatever was going to happen to him when seemingly out of nowhere a boy, roughly his age though taller and very pale with blonde hair with a pair of shades that police wear in every single TV show ever made came rushing the same way he had just a few moments earlier, taking the same damage as Karkat when he ran straight into the semi-transparent wall. The only real difference was that the kid managed to stay up on his feet rather than fall backwards.

Karkat watched, more than a bit shocked, as the blonde produced a sword and sliced at the wall, and ended up scrambling backwards as the sword shattered and the top part of the blade hit where Karkat had been just a second before. Instinctively Karkat jumped up and opened his mouth to scream at the boy but still no noise out. If he weren’t so mad he might have realized that this was the first person since himself who couldn’t get through the wall and he may have been able to realize the significance of that. Luckily, the stranger did take notice of Karkat and the fact that the shorter boy reacted to his actions.

“You’re a Player, aren’t you?” he asked.

Karkat just gave him a confused look before nodding. ‘Player’ sounded about right. If this whole dream was about a game that would make him a player.

The boy was looking around, probably at those frogs that Karkat had noticed coming earlier.

“We need to make a pact. Right now. If we don’t, we’re going to die. So unless you’re keen on the prospect of dying at the hands, not even hands but fucking webs, of frogs, you need to say yes to this: do you accept the pact?”

Say yes? That was going to be a problem. Instead, Karkat nodded. Apparently that worked because instantly they were both surrounded a sort of warm light.

Still clutching his broken sword, the strange boy spoke again. “Get ready kid, it’s high time to kick some amphibious ass and there aren’t going to be any water breaks.”

 _I’m not a kid!_ Karkat wanted to say, but he contented himself with glaring at the boy for the next few moments until suddenly the boy was gone and he was surrounded by those accursed frogs all over again. Didn’t that kid just that making a pact would save him? He just wanted to scream. He was going to die here and he just wanted to scream but he couldn’t even do that.

In his pocket he could feel something…warm. He didn’t know quite how to describe it but something inside of him decided it was a good idea to grab whatever it was. So he did, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small handful of pins. Why he had buttons in his pocket he had no idea. He certainly didn’t have them before this whole fiasco.

Part of him just wanted to chuck the pins away. After all what good were pins when was going to die?

The first of the frogs reached him and he could feel them latching on to his skin and it felt like they were attacking his very essence and all he really knew for sure was that it hurt. It hurt more than anything in his life save for when he got hit by that stupid car, and even then it was a close contender. All he could think was he had a handful of pins some random blonde who nearly killed him and he was about to die and he had six goddamn pins to show for it. He clutched the pins tightly and shut his eyes and just concentrated on screaming. That’s all he wanted to do, just scream. When he opened his eyes again the frogs were flying backwards.

What the… He unclenched his fist and saw that one of the pins in his hand was glowing. He stared at it, transfixed, for another moment before he felt himself getting attacked by another frog.

The pins must do something. He crossed his fingers and hoped that was an accurate assertion and focused on another. As he did, icicles formed beneath the frogs and soon the little beasts disappeared into dust.

After just a few attacks, though, the ice stopped working. Karkat tried to focus on the other pins, this time one with a fire symbol on it. Sure enough fire erupted on the field and another frog disappeared. One even disappeared without his attacks. Weird. Things were definitely going better for him now. The fire stopped working after only a few seconds but that was okay, because the ice started working again. None of the other pins were working for him, not even the first pin to have glowed, but the last frog disintegrated into nothing anyways so Karkat really couldn’t find it in himself to care at the moment.

Before he knew it the blonde boy from before was standing next to him, looking just as worn out as Karkat felt. The boy brushed it off quickly though, collecting himself stretching his muscles. This guy didn’t look like much when Karkat first saw him, but after getting a better look now it definitely looked like the blonde was pretty well built for the game. His body was pretty lean, but under the layer of glistening moisture Karkat could pretty easily tell that that it was all muscle on the boy’s skin. Karkat didn’t need to look at himself to know his own body was very different. There really was no muscle to speak of under his tan skin. It didn’t really matter, though. There were more important things to worry about than how muscular he was.

‘What the hell was that’? Of course he couldn’t actually ask. Karkat was going to have to find a way to communicate with people. He glanced over to his backpack, where he was fairly certain he had a notebook and some pens.

“Now that we have that out of the way, I never did get your name.” The blonde said, turning back to Karkat.

Karkat crossed his arms. This wasn’t going to go well at all.

Another moment of silence passed before the blonde spoke up again. “So I guess we’re just going to stare silently, huh?” he questioned. His expression was unreadable. “That’s cool man, a lot of people have that reaction the first time they see me. I’ve gotten used to it.”

 _‘It’s not like I can help it, you narcissistic idiot.’_ Karkat wanted to snap at him, but settling for a soundless snarl instead.

“Whoah man no need for that it’s a question not an interrogation. I didn’t realize you were feral. Do I need to coddle you some before I can get anything out of you?”

Now Karkat definitely wanted to yell at him. Instead, he forced himself to calm down and just rolled his eyes before going to pull his phone out of his pocket. He opened a notepad app quickly began tapping keys.

“Well jeez, sorry if I’m boring you. I was just – huh?” He stopped when Karkat held out his phone showing the words “it’s karkat”.

“What is that, a typo?”

Karkat sneered at him and brought the phone back close to smash at the keys a second time to spell out “It’s MY NAME.” in addition to the last writing.

“You couldn’t just say that?”

It took all of Karkat’s self-control to not throw the phone at the boy’s head, and it must have been obvious because the boy laughed.

“Relax bro, I’m not an idiot. You can’t talk, yeah? Not that hard to figure out. I realized that a bit ago I just wanted to mess with you. I didn’t realize you had anger issues.” He shrugged, as if saying the whole thing was a joke would make it okay and as if this was at all a time in which jokes were even acceptable. Karkat started pounding out keys again.

“Okay man, we definitely need a better way to communicate. You typing on your phone is going to get old fast, especially if you start making typos saying you want to fuck me or something.”

This time Karkat really did throw his phone at the blonde.

Unfortunately, he easily caught the projectile out of the air. “Ouch man, cold. I’d say that I know when I’m not wanted but that doesn’t really matter now since we’re stuck with each other for a week. That or until we die. Whichever comes first.” He shrugged before sticking his hand out, a smirk on his face. “Name’s Dave Strider.”

God that smirk was annoying.

At least now he had a name to put to that annoying voice.

“Oh right, and you were trying to tell me something, yeah?” Dave said, glancing at the screen of the phone. “‘What is going on?’” He read from the screen. “Come on man, haven’t you ever heard of the Reapers’ Game?”

Karkat hesitated a moment before nodding. Of course he had heard of it, it was a pretty popular urban myth. But just because he heard of it didn’t mean he actually believed any of it was possible. It couldn’t be possible, after all.

“Then why are you asking what’s going on? This is it! The Reaper’s Game in all its glory. Don’t even have to buy a new system to play it, just start it up and you’re good to go. Gotta be careful not to scratch anything though, don’t want half the city to suddenly disappear due to a glitch. That’s always a problem when handling games, you know. Gotta treat it right.” The boy rambled.

Karkat eyed him oddly before reaching into his backpack and taking out his notebook and pen.

_what the hell are you rambling about?_

“It’s just a metaphor, obviously the real game isn’t a video game. It’s real life, well not really real life, but you get the idea.”

There was a short pause before Karkat began writing again.

_are we dead?_

_Now Dave just shot him a sympathetic look. “Shit, you didn’t know?”_

Karkat just stared at him for a moment, trying to let this all sink in. Of course he knew. He’d heard the stories. But he sure as hell didn’t want this to be true.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news but we’re stone cold dead. That’s how the Reaper’s Game works.”

All Karkat could do was stare. He swallowed hard. He couldn’t believe this, he didn’t want to.

He wanted to wake up.

“But it’s all cool we’re going to get a second chance.”

Karkat stared at Dave a moment with a confused look before taking out his notebook and scribbling a few words.

_second chance?_

“Man, do you know anything about the Reaper’s Game? How the hell can you live in Houston and not know this shit? I mean really you don’t seem the social type what with the whole not talking thing but you still should have heard this from someone.” The blonde started rambling again. He was rewarded with an eyeroll and some more scribbles on paper.

_I’m not FROM here, just visiting._

_and I’ve heard vaguely. of the game I just assumed it was bull._

_anyways I never really heard of the RULES just that this kid knew this who heard of a kid who claimed to be dead and came back. not especially fucking reliable!_  
_also FUCK YOU I’m plenty social._

“Okay calm down dude. I got the dets on this bullshit so I can hold your hand all the way through. But first let’s start off with some pleasantries. Where are you from?”

_what? is knowing my name not pleasant enough now?_

“Do you even know how to calm the fuck down for like, five minutes?”

Karkat attempted to snarl at his partner.

_I’m from Pearland._

“All right, now we’re getting somewhere.”

Yeah well that’s great for you but I’m still kind of stuck on the whole being dead thing.

“Oh. Right I almost forgot. Yeah well this is the Reaper’s Game. What do reapers do? They reap on the dead like total assholes so obviously you got to be dead for this to work.”

There was a pause before Karkat wrote in his notebook again.

_I can’t be dead._

“Pretty sure you can be unless you’re a highlander or something.”

Karkat gripped his pencil so tightly he felt like he was going to break it as he glared at Dave.

fuck you I am so fucking alive I can’t be dead I CAN’T so naturally I must be alive. if I were dead then I’d know. but I’m kind busy, you know, EXISTING, to actually be DEAD.

“You must have gotten hit pretty hard, whatever killed you. I strictly remember being shot through the chest. I can’t be alive. Do you seriously not remember dying?”

There was another pause.

Karkat stared at his notebook, which was quickly filling up with half of a conversation. By this point he was gripping his pencil so tightly he would probably be surprised it wasn’t breaking if he weren’t so distracted by the notion that he might actually be dead.

_there was a car…_

The words he scribbled were almost illegible.

_and I guess it hit me but I didn’t think it killed me._

“Hey look, it’s okay. We’re just going to beat this lame ass E for everyone game and get our lives back.”

_How’d you get shot?_

Karkat couldn’t really justify caring, but he could easily say that it was another stupid ice breaker of sorts. He was kind of curious.

The boy shrugged. “You know how it goes, wrong place wrong time. One second I’m taking a shortcut between two buildings and the next I feel this…I don’t even know how to describe it. Like I was punched by the Incredible Hulk in half a square inch of space and it’s just ripping through my chest and-” He cut himself off. “It hurt like fuck and I died pretty quickly.” He concluded with a shrug before glancing at his hand. “Come on we don’t have forever we can deal with this shit tomorrow, alright?”

Another moment passed as Karkat shifted awkwardly on his feet before he actually nodded. He wasn’t really sure if he was supposed to say something to all of that, but he decided it was easiest to just keep going. Anyways, he did have an excuse to not talk.

“So you don’t know where we’re going right?” Dave said, interrupting his thoughts. “Put that stuff away and follow me I’ll get us there in five.”

_What about the wall?_

“From what I’ve heard about the game, I think it’s supposed to go away once you make a pact or something.” Dave jogged over to the wall and stuck his hand out, touching nothing. “Ha! See? Wall’s gone. Looks like we got free reign of the town now.” He looked at his hand again. “Not that it really matters right now, we need to get our set of fine asses inside the park.”

A quick glance at his own hand told Karkat he should be hurrying just the same as the blonde. Quickly, he shoved his notebook and pencil into his bag before feeling Dave grab his wrist and drag him along at a hurried pace.

The thought that Karkat just couldn’t seem to get out of his the whole way rang through every fiber of his being.

There is no way he was going to survive this.


End file.
